[@liferusher]
Was he supposed to be impressed by this? Was he supposed to be entertained? Was he supposed to feel anything in this new environment? At least the mountains had environmental dangers, and the cities had iron carriages freely wheeling about like wild stallions, but this? Arata wanted to scream, but he was tired even of that. Perhaps it really would have been better if he had accepted the proposal to ride on one of those metal birds, but the challenge of swimming through such a riotous sea had been too appealing to him at the time.

Now his clothes were just itchy and he had a long way to go before he reached the mall. Maybe he should run? Would the teachers here care if he shattered the stone paths to get somewhere faster? Actually, why did he even care about that?

After all, if they had a problem with what he was doing, they’d go to punish him, right? And punishment led to fighting, right? So naturally, that meant…

[i]"Haaaalllpppp"[/i]

A drawn-out plea, more half-hearted than genuine, rang through the air, stopping Arata before he could make a foot-sized indentation onto the concrete sidewalk. He turned, eyes searching for the dastardly bandits that must have been viciously assaulting a lone traveller on her way to the city and instead found…bushes.

Bushes that, when brushed away, revealed a white-haired, one-tailed, half-transformed nekomata in a locked, iron-barred cage.

Arata stared at this peculiar sight and let out a long, disappointed sigh. Had youkai, over the course of a few centuries, degraded this much? To the extent that a nekomata, proud man-eaters and shapeshifters, were incapable of even fully transforming into a cat and slipping through the gaps of this cage? Yes, she must have been a young one, perhaps even a domesticated one, but the sun-haired oni couldn’t help but click his tongue.

[b]“Hey, nekomata-san,” [/b]he began, crouching down and crushing the lock between his right hand, [b]“I just got to this island, so do you know if there’s gonna be a battle starting up here? The dwarf that told me to come here promised a festival of blood and violence, but, you know…”[/b]

He gestured to the peaceful walkway leading to the main hub of Liseranna Academy. The sun was shining brightly (outside of a bunch of random thunderclouds that came and went), birds were chirping happily, and there was literally not one person who looked like they were looking to slay with impunity.

[b]“…this is really peaceful…”[/b]